The madman is not the man who has lost his reason.
The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason. –GK Chesterton
People who see
Fairy Tales as a means for escaping “reality” have never read one, or, if they
have, didn’t understand what they were being shown. For example, wicked
witches, rulers, and invisible forces are encountered in most every chapter, as
are their antidotes (ethical behavior), counterparts (brave Knights), and
destroyers (Christ figures). In my own experience, I have learned far more
about the nature of evil and the power of goodness from such stories than from
many of the sermons I have heard over my lifetime. Far from producing in the
reader various forms of neurosis or psychosis, the truth is, as Chesterton
states: “The fairy-tale is full of mental health.”
Consider the
realities of Faith, Hope, and Love, as demonstrated in Fairy Tales.
Faith I
have heard countless parents say that they would never permit their children to
read Fairy Tales as such stories embed fears that would haunt the child for
years to come. Fairy Tales, however, do not introduce the reader to previously
unknown horrors. All children are fairly sure there are terrible creatures in
their closets and under their beds. What Fairy Tales do for us is impart a
belief that there are more powerful forces in the world than evil.
In Tremendous Trifles, GK Chesterton writes, “Exactly what the
fairy-tale does is this: it accustoms him by a series of clear pictures to the
idea that these limitless terrors have a limit, that these shapeless enemies
have enemies, that these infinite enemies of man have enemies in the knights of
God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and
stronger than strong fear.”
Fairy Tales elicit faith in
the face of terrible ordeals. This faith, however, is not rooted in this world
but in another. Many of the characters we meet here suffer temporal defeats and
die, yet they die with faith that evil will not have the final word on Creation
or mankind.
Hope In
most all Fairy Tales, there is the miraculous turn of events. Where there had been
failure and sorrow there is now victory and joy. In words coined by Tolkien, “dyscatastrophy” becomes
“eucatastrophe.”
“The consolation of
fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good
catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn’ (for there is no true end to any
fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can
produce supremely well, is not essentially 'escapist', nor 'fugitive'. In its
fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to
be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of
sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of
deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal
final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy
beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.” (On Fairy-Stories)
As we read of the hero or
heroine’s battles, we experience their fear and dread. And then, just before
the Final and Great Catastrophe occurs, “a ‘turn’ comes, a catch of the breath,
a lifting of the heart,” (Tolkien) There is always hope, both in this life and
in the one to come.
Love Fairy
Tales display the reality that true love is transformative. Kiss the frog and
he will turn into a handsome Prince. Kiss Snow White and she will cast off the
evil Queen’s enchantment and awaken. Lay down your life for love’s sake and the
land that had been cursed, whereby it is “always winter but never Christmas,”
and Narnia is delivered. Once love does all that love will do … “And they lived
happily ever after.”
Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2014
